ahh, i was saying in that in a slightly sarcastic tone which of course doesn't translate well in text. I /almost/ but the qualifier that there would have to be equipment at every endpoint instead of just being able to hook whatever up.. but didnt... anyways.. just wanted to clarify that it was somewhat of a joke.. (although when the tech comes about, fiber throughout a hosehold would be quite an interesting project)
On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 12:05 PM, Brandon Valentine < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The problem with fiber is that no consumer device ships with a fiber > port. But just about everything ships with an ethernet jack these > days. If you've got a bunch of beige boxes and are content with > always having a bunch of beige boxes you can stick fiber cards in all > of them, but if you want to use laptops or all-in-one machines like an > iMac or a set-top box you'll end up with a bunch of dopey looking > media converters hanging off of all of your equipment. Further, if > you do have to use a media converter, you can still end up with a > surge in the copper between the media converter and the device you're > attaching to. Last year I had a surge induced by a nearby lightning > strike hit a 3 foot ethernet cable between a router and a cable modem. > Took out the ethernet controllers on both devices and made them > worthless but left everything else in the house alone. Even the other > ethernet controller on the router worked fine. Lightning strikes are > a funny thing. A better option IMO would be to put surge protectors > inline with your in-wall ethernet jacks. You should have access to a > good grounding source somewhere inside the wall of the house. > > On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 11:46 AM, Evan Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > now thats an interesting proposition, running fiber through your house > > instead of copper... > > > > On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 11:22 AM, David R. Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > >> > >> On Fri, 2008-10-24 at 08:46 -0400, Andrew Farnsworth wrote: > >> > Running Gigabit ethernet on Cat 5 does work, however, you will find > >> > that many things affect the performance and you might want to keep > >> > these in mind. > >> > > >> > 1) Run length - the length of cable your signal must traverse will > >> > affect the performance. The longer the cable the worse performance. > >> > Keep your patch cables to the appropriate length, i.e. don't use a 50' > >> > cable for a 3' gap. > >> > > >> > 2) Jack quality - Most jacks will cost about $5 for a keystone > >> > category 5e jack. As such, don't buy Cat5 jacks, splurge for the 5e > >> > ones. I have yet to see the house that has very many jacks (i.e. > > >> > 100) so spending an extra $2 per jack won't cost you much. Cat6 jacks > >> > won't do you any better then Cat5e if you are still using Cat5 wire. > >> > > >> > 3) Interference - the main difference between Cat5 and Cat5e is the > >> > number of twists per foot. The more twists, the less susceptible to > >> > interference. As such, if your cable runs along next to the power > >> > lines in your house, you may see a gigabit connection, but get very > >> > bad throughput, even to the point of worse actual throughput than 100 > >> > Mbit due to noise on the line. In a residence, this should be fairly > >> > minimal as your noise generators are pretty much limited to your power > >> > lines. > >> > > >> > 4) Wiring - Gigabit uses all 8 wires in the cable. 10/100 Mb only > >> > requires wires 1,2,3, and 6. Since you are doing the wiring yourself > >> > you can be sure to attach all 8. Find yourself a good wiring chart as > >> > the pairing in gigabit cabling must be 1-2, 3-6, 4-5, 7-8. Be sure > >> > your patch cables are all Cat5e or better as this will insure they use > >> > all 8 wires, though I have yet to find any premade patch cable in the > >> > last 5 years that doesn't use all 8 wires, it is better to be safe > >> > than sorry. > >> > > >> > 5) Network switch - don't buy the cheapest switch you can find. In > >> > fact it might be worth shelling out for a decent business class switch > >> > that has network managment facilitites. These will usually cost more > >> > but will also give port statistics which will let you track down > >> > issues. Keep in mind that if you are pushing a lot of data around > >> > your network from more than just your server, but peer to peer or if > >> > you have multiple servers, that the internal bandwidth of the switch > >> > you choose is important. Many cheap Gigabit switches only support 2-3 > >> > Gb of internal bandwidth so if you have 4 machines talking to 4 other > >> > machines you can saturate your switch. Not usually an issue for home > >> > networks, but something to keep in mind. > >> > > >> > To make a long story short, get it all wired up and test it out. If > >> > you have a specific run that you think is important to get full > >> > gigabit speeds from, it might be worth re-running that wire using > >> > Cat5e cable. > >> > >> Cat 5e is typically rated to 350mb. > >> > >> Make that Cat6 cable. > >> > >> Cat 6 is also a bit different in the structure of the cable. Andy hit > >> all of those points correctly. Keep in mind that the twist just before > >> hitting the jacks can make a difference. Length of the cable at Gigabit > >> speed makes a big difference. If you do have to run a long length of > >> cable and it needs high bandwidth switch to fiber. > >> > >> Dave > >> > >> > > >> > Andy > >> > > >> > On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 8:12 AM, Steve <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > >> > > >> > As far as cabling is concerned, from my old research as I > >> > recall, cat5 > >> > was designed for 100m, cat5e was designed for 1gb, and cat6 > >> > was for > >> > 1gb to 10gb. It's all about the wire gauge and # of twists. > >> > Those more > >> > twists are designed to stop interferences. I know you're not > >> > interested in re-pulling your old cable but if you start > >> > seeing poor > >> > speeds and dropped packets, that could very well be your > >> > issue. > >> > > >> > > >> > > > >> > >> > >> > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > Brandon D. 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